Negligent employers to pay NHS treatment costs

The government is looking to recover the cost to the NHS of treating people injured at work.

The Department of Health is consulting on whether to allow the NHS to recover costs from insurance companies for treating patients in cases where personal injury compensation is paid (such as occupational accident and disease cases). It is expected that the scheme would recover an additional £150 million a year.

Welcoming the consultation, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "It is important that negligent employers pay the full cost of their actions rather than expecting taxpayers to subsidise their failures to protect workers."

Consultation on the draft regulations can be obtained from www.dh.gov.uk/Consultations/LiveConsultations/fs/en. The closing date for responses is 17 December.